


The Three Doctors

by chervilspotatoes



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Astronomy, DNA, Meta, Science, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 07:57:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4911565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chervilspotatoes/pseuds/chervilspotatoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Explores the importance of three doctors and what they could mean for John and Sherlock's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Three Doctors

**Author's Note:**

> My first meta

The Three Doctors

One of the few things I haven’t seen extensively metaed is the importance of doctors, starting with Professor Cairns from The Great Game. 

There was a real life Doctor Cairns, a doctor of medicine who made an important breakthrough in DNA replication in 1969. So, why is Professor Cairns a doctor of astronomy who, as far as we know, has not played a pivotal role in her field? Doctor Stapleton from Baskerville is doing cutting edge research in gene manipulation, a much better parallel to real life Doctor Cairns than Professor Cairns of astronomy, but not perfect. Why not give Doctor Stapleton the Cairns name instead? The Cairns name is singular and key to the case, as John points out “There can’t be many Cairns in the book,” leading to her discovery. But, John and Sherlock were a little bit too late in getting to her, she was beyond help by the time of their arrival.

Professor Cairns works in a planetarium, which does not do research, it shows astronomical shows to visitors and teaches them about what they are seeing in the sky. She is much more of a teacher than Dr. Stapleton or Dr. Cairns (for the period of his life he is most famous for). Nothing is wrong with teaching, but Professor Cairns doesn’t seem too excited about it. We see her late at night, going through the film, muttering “Yes, we know all that.” We don’t hear her say much else besides her voicemail on Alex Woodbridge’s line and her protestations to being strangled, so it must be an important line.

The film she is going through looks interesting enough, it is bright and colorful and dramatic, with a good narrator imparting knowledge to masses of people. She’s not entirely happy with it, but seeing it over and over with no progression would get a bit repetitive. This film is John and Sherlock’s relationship, it is bright and colorful and dramatic, with wonderful cases. But, its participants aren’t very happy. There is no progression. It gets repetitive in that they get close to each other, but then flit away again. Every single time.

And Professor Cairns gets strangled for her troubles. Doesn’t bode well for the eventual fate of this stage of Sherlock and John’s relationship, though the film does continue the entire scene.

Doctor Stapleton used the GFP gene from jellyfish to make a glow in the dark rabbit by injecting it with the foreign DNA, and she is probably involved in other projects of a similar nature.

The astronomy documentary stage of their relationship ends with Irene, I think, but Dr. Stapleton highlights this change beautifully. By Baskerville, Sherlock and John are settled into domesticity and John has made the conscious decision that he will not push Sherlock. He will respect what he believes to be Sherlock’s wishes and keep his distance. In other words, he will not inject Sherlock with foreign DNA. They are both more involved with the other than they were in The Great Game, not merely watching as an observer, but being each other’s glow in the dark rabbit. They only glow in the dark because that is where their love still is—it is in the dark, it glows all the time but can only be seen when the other—the source or conductor of light—is not present or does not see.

Their relationship is still in this stage. Another stage is needed, and we have the result of the last stage with the name of the first doctor. Cairns. 

Doctor Cairns was a doctor and molecular biologist. Molecular biologists study DNA, the genetic component of cells that dictates everything the cell does, and RNA, which helps DNA do its job. Each cell requires DNA, so when a cell replicates and divides, DNA must, too. When DNA is circular, this process starts at the same point every time. The feature of this process that Cairns went into was if, while the DNA was replicating, it did so going clockwise and counterclockwise around the circle simultaneously from that point, meeting in the middle opposite where replication began, or if it went one direction around the circle and stopped at the same point where it began. Cairns showed it was the first, that DNA was replicated going both directions around the circle and met at the opposite point.

This last doctor, presumably Moriarty, as he is referred to in ACD canon, will bring their relationship out of the dark. They will realize that their love started at the same place and time, where they met all the way back in A Study in Pink. And they will realize that they both fill half the circle. They will both end at the same place; they are going to stay together the rest of their lives. Their love is a complete circle, lasting forever and being infinite and true. When DNA is finished replicating, two complete circles exist—matching wedding bands for them to wear.


End file.
